Racino on trooper loss: No big deal

A director at the Farmington facility said the troopers who have been assigned to the site have little effect on the day-to-day workings of the attraction.

Julie Sherwood

While Naples Central School is bracing to fight a proposal that would eliminate its school resource officer, a head honcho at Finger Lakes Gaming & Racetrack said losing its troopers under the plan is not a concern.

Gov. Eliot Spitzer has unveiled a statewide plan that, if put into effect, would remove state police from current posts at the school and track so more troopers can be shifted to areas where they are needed more.

In his budget proposal last week, Spitzer said he plans to redeploy almost 200 troopers from schools and racinos around New York to high-crime areas.

Locally, several troopers would be affected. The resource officer stationed full-time in the Naples schools, Trooper John McIlwaine, is expected to be redeployed at the end of the school year. He is one of 14 resource officers assigned to schools in the 10-county area policed by Troop E. Six resource officers are assigned to school districts in Wayne County, including Gananda, Marion, North-Rose Wolcott, Red Creek, Wayne, Williamson and Sodus. Schools in Monroe and Yates counties do not have troopers assigned as resource officers.

Additionally, within the next month, the six investigators and one senior investigator assigned to the racino on Route 96 in Farmington are expected to get new assignments.

Steve Martin, senior director of gaming and marketing at the track, said Wednesday he isn’t worried. The investigators don’t have much impact on the daily operations, he said; they serve “a regulatory role for the New York Lottery.” The state has assigned them to do background checks on employees, “to review licenses and ensure integrity,” Martin said.

Martin said the state will ensure that regulations are upheld and it will continue to provide the investigators’ services even if the process is structured differently. And as far as having state police on hand to provide security? “Troop E is right down the road.”

State police in Albany stressed Tuesday they are not abandoning the eight race tracks in New York with video lottery terminals or the 118 school districts with troopers working as school resource officers.

There are 92 troopers and investigators posted at racinos from Yonkers to the Buffalo area. An additional 96 troopers are stationed at school districts to help maintain order. A minority of New York’s roughly 700 school districts use troopers for their school resource officers. Districts can rely on local police or choose not to have one. Most districts in Ontario County have resource officers from the county sheriff’s office.

Naples School Superintendent Brenda Keith said Wednesday the prospect of losing the trooper in the schools is “a great concern.”

The district has had the officer since January 2001 and the officer has “become an integral part of the school system,” she said. “We will appeal to the governor and Legislature to ask that they reconsider that decision.”